


An Easy Tell

by Fenris



Series: Crimebusters AU [2]
Category: Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Humor, Fluff, Humor, Kink Meme, M/M, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-14
Updated: 2011-05-14
Packaged: 2017-10-19 10:01:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/199630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fenris/pseuds/Fenris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan loves making Rorschach blush. Rorschach finally gets fed up with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Done as a fill for a kinkmeme prompt requesting fic where Dan loves making Rorschach blush.
> 
> Takes place in 1967, in an AU where the Crimebusters actually happened.
> 
> In my take on the Crimebusters AU, Hollis publishes Under the Hood in the late 70s instead of in 1962. Because otherwise Laurie’s interactions with her dad would probably be limited to a whole bunch of times where she throws a drink in his face and walks off. And I really couldn’t see her working alongside him in the Crimebusters.

Laurie notices it for the first time after a Crimebusters meeting, when she sees Nite Owl bend down and whisper something into Rorschach’s ear.

Which isn’t unusual in and of itself; they’re always having weird little personal conferences with each other comprised of cryptic whispers and monosyllabic noises, half-shrugs, hand signals and other little various body tics that hold meaning only for them. It’s kind of disturbing, really, when she thinks about it.

But Rorschach’s reaction to whatever Nite Owl whispers in his ear this time is odd. He snaps a brief, indecipherable response back at his partner then looks the other way; his posture changing from hands-in-pockets relaxed to hands-fisted-at-sides uncomfortable. And as she watches, the shifting black patterns on his face stop moving and grow, black spreading across the white mask like ink dropped onto damp blotter paper.

At which point Rorschach wheels and abruptly walks out. Nite Owl doesn’t seem at all upset, though, that he seems to have mightily pissed off his partner. He’s grinning from ear to ear as he waves goodnight to Laurie and the others before following Rorschach out the door.

Laurie shrugs and dismisses it. But doesn’t forget it, because much as she tells herself that whatever’s going on between Nite Owl and his weird little partner is of no interest to her, she knows that she’s lying.

\---

Now that she’s looking for it, she notices that Nite Owl seems to have started taking a real pleasure in winding Rorschach up to the point where his mask blackens with anger and he stalks off.

And it’s always after Dan makes some arcane reference to some mythical case they are working on, or some mythical clue they’re following up, which Laurie is positive at this point is merely code for something entirely different.

For example, at a meeting two weeks ago, Nite Owl was talking about a drug bust that he and Rorschach had just made when he gave his partner a sidelong look and with a weird little smile said, “We really need to revisit that Belgian artwork heist, though. Your work on that was brilliant, I’m still in awe.” And _boom_ , there it went, black shadows spreading swiftly across the white mask. And there Rorschach went a minute later, up out of his seat and out the door.

It all seemed to be completely in fun on Nite Owl’s part---as always, he looked really pleased with himself after it happened. Then, as always, he took off in Rorschach’s wake; to apologize, she assumed, to his torked-off partner yet again for being a dick.

And while Ozymandias, the world’s smartest walking ego, may be all “I notice subtle body and facial movements, no human can successfully lie to me,” he’s still a man. And, as much as Laurie hates girly stereotypes, it’s true that women look for and notice things that men just don’t. And she’s the only one that seems to have noticed this new dynamic between the Justice Twins (as the Comedian refers to them).

 _Or maybe they all notice it too, but you’re just the only curious dumbass with no life of her own who gives a shit, Laurel Jane_ , she thinks.

Whatever it is, it’s weird. And, for some reason she can’t quite put her finger on, disturbing. And she wishes they’d just knock it off.

***

It finally clicks for her one evening when they are all sitting around the table playing poker.

The poker games are another one of Ozymandias’ dippy little team-building exercises. And since it’s the only one of Ozy’s team-building efforts that the Comedian will actually show up for, poker night has pretty much become a semi-weekly occurrence.

But it turns out that Laurie has an aptitude for playing poker, which for some strange reason seems to really please the Comedian, so she doesn’t really mind. Because the Comedian is just beyond cool and it’s pretty thrilling that he pays so much attention to her, although it seems to freak her mom out that he does. Laurie’s learned to just not talk about him in front of her mother.

In fact, the Comedian seems to have taken it on himself to turn Laurie into a card sharp. He’s been teaching her playing strategies and how to read people and learn their various strategies and ‘tells’, and it’s started paying off for her. She’s even managed to bluff the Comedian once or twice. Even with the dollar ante games they usually play, at this point she’s got three hundred and forty dollars tucked away in her private little poker winnings kitty (which her mom is not aware of).

So here they are on another Wednesday night. Laurie is sitting next to the Comedian. Ozymandias and Captain Metropolis are to their right, Nite Owl and Rorschach to their left. (Jon, of course, is not in attendance because he has a bad habit of forgetting that he shouldn’t mention who’s going to win before the hands are even dealt.)

Usually Nite Owl’s creepy little shadow can’t be bothered to participate in such useless and morally eroding practices as playing poker. But every once in a while Nite Owl evidently manages to wheedle his partner into coming along and playing, and tonight is one of those nights.

Nobody’s saying much, they’re all concentrating on their hands when Laurie glances up and sees black ink blooming across Rorschach’s mask.

She looks over at Nite Owl, curious because he hasn’t actually said anything; none of the usual cryptic references to nonexistent cases they use as code for whatever the fuck they’re really talking about that seems to piss Rorschach off so much. Then she notices that Nite Owl’s loosely gripping his beer bottle, sliding his hand slowly up, then down over the perspiring cold green glass.

Laurie shoots another look at Rorschach (who’s drinking Coke, no rum of course, through a straw slipped up under his mask because God forbid any of them should find out what his freaking _mouth_ looks like). He’s shifting uncomfortably in his chair and the black has now spread in wide bands across where his forehead and cheeks and chin should be.

And all of a sudden she gets what’s happening. Nite Owl explained to her once how the mask worked, that it changes patterns by responding to pressure—and heat.

He’s blushing. Rorschach is fucking _blushing_.

She knows she’s right as Nite Owl slides his grip very slowly and suggestively up the bottle again, then absently moves his thumb in circles around the bottle’s lip and then slowly back and forth over the top a few times.

And Rorschach is looking distinctly uncomfortable now. His hat is canted slightly to one side and Laurie can see that the material over the tip of his ear is completely black.

It seems too bizarre, but there it is before her wondering eyes. Rorschach, the grim Terror of the Underworld, is squirming in his chair and blushing like a convent girl as he watches his partner administer a slow hand job to a beer bottle.

_Wow. Okay. Guess I owe the Comedian twenty bucks._

And well, wow, because right up to this moment she’s never seen Nite Owl as anything more than a big Boy Scout/Poindexter science nerd.

Laurie finds that although she’s not blushing, she’s feeling a little flushed herself at the sight of him getting all pervy with his beer bottle. And speculating about what might happen between the two men later on this evening makes her feel even more flushed, as fucked-up as _that_ is.

“Need to start patrol, Nite Owl.” Rorschach’s throat is evidently a bit dry; his voice is a little hoarser than usual.

“Whoops. Yeah, you’re right.” Dan folds his hand. “Sorry folks, places to go, malfeasants to catch, you know the drill.”

The Comedian snorts and gives them an offhand salute with his cigar. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t catch ‘em all at once, leave some for us. Evening, ladies.”

As Rorschach gets up to leave, Laurie’s thinking that the trench coat’s probably coming in pretty handy right now, covering a multitude of sins. Well, one particular sin, anyway. Dan’s costume is not so fortunately made, however, and even with the cup built into his uniform she gets a bit of an eyeful for a moment when he starts to stand up, just before he casually flips his cape around to cover up.

As they leave, she wonders if this might be an opportune time to step outside for a smoke.

***

 _Agh. Athletic cups and hard-ons really aren’t a comfortable mix_ , Dan thinks as he follows Rorschach across the parking lot toward Archie. He can’t wait to get into Archie and get the damn thing off, then get his hands all over his partner.

He’s just in an overwhelmingly good mood tonight, completely pleased with his world in general. As they near Archie, Dan’s high spirits spill over and with an ebullient laugh he slings an arm around his partner’s narrow waist and scoops him up. He throws Rorschach over his shoulder and carries him onto Archie, running a possessive hand up one of Rorschach's thighs and under the trench coat to fondle his ass as he does.

And really, the fact that Rorschach allows him to do it without a struggle should tip Dan off then and there that there’s going to be trouble. But he’s riding far too high right this moment to be analytical about anything.

Once inside Archie, he sets his partner down and grins at him. Rorschach quickly shucks off his trench coat and suit jacket, and then turns to Dan. He shoves his mask up over his nose, revealing a flushed chin and cheeks, and a tight grin of his own that Dan realizes an instant too late is actually teeth bared in anger. The other man pounces, springing up on Dan but not in the way that he’d hoped for.

Dan hits the floor on his back with 140 pounds of angry Rorschach perched on top of him.

“Going to _kill_ you, Daniel, if you don’t stop doing that!” he hisses in Dan’s ear.

All Dan can concentrate on right now is the fact that as angry as he sounds, Rorschach is also very turned on. As he hisses in Dan’s ear he’s also straddling him and grinding a very obvious erection against him, and while it initially feels fantastic, it’s becoming very uncomfortable on Dan’s end because the edge of his athletic cup is being driven into his nuts, and dear _God_ that hurts.

“Rorschach, move---“

“I _mean it_ , Daniel.” His partner shifts his weight, unfortunately the wrong way.

“Get off, get off, get off, _get off_ ” is the only thing Dan can say now as he struggles frantically to push the other man off of him. But Rorschach’s got his arms and legs locked and isn’t going to be easily thrown off.

Dan really doesn’t want to punch his partner off him, because that’ll be a real mood killer, but things are rapidly getting desperate. He works his hands up under the vest and runs his knuckles harshly up and down his partner’s ribs, then squeezes the muscles at his sides, digging in. It’s a risky move because Rorschach’s usually not ticklish at all after he gets past a certain level of anger or arousal, but this time it works; it takes him by surprise and he snorts and twists away just enough to give Dan room to get his arm completely in between them and obtain sufficient leverage to shift his partner’s weight off Dan’s suffering groin and dump him onto the floor.

Rorschach immediately gets his feet under him and stands up, breath coming hard and fast between gritted teeth, fists clenched at his sides.

The first thing Dan does is readjust his cup so that it’s no longer killing him. Then he holds up a pacifying hand as Rorschach tenses, looking ready to launch himself at Dan again.

“Hey, okay, okay. Let me just take Archie up, okay? Then we’ll talk. Otherwise people are going to get a real eyeful if they come outside. These windows aren’t opaque, you know.”

It’s sort of both the wrong and right thing to say. The realization that someone could walk outside and see them keeps Rorschach from attacking Dan again, giving him time to get Archie started up. However, the realization that someone could have _already_ walked outside and seen them is fueling Rorschach’s anger and bringing it even closer to boiling over again. Dan feels that it’s best to get while the getting is good and fumbles for the lift controls.

***

About seventy feet away from Archie, a tiny glowing ember winks in the darkness as its owner flicks ash off the end of her cigarette.

Laurie takes a deep drag and watches through one of the huge round airship windows as first Rorschach, then Nite Owl abruptly appear again, rising from whatever they were doing on the floor. Nite Owl slides into the pilot’s chair and fiddles with something at the console, and the airship rises up and arcs away from the building, disappearing into the dark sky.

“Believe that’s twenty smackeroos you owe me, princess. Told ya.”

“ _Jesus!!_ ” She almost swallows her lit cigarette, and turns to punch the Comedian in the arm, hard. He grins at her as she grits out, “How the hell do you walk so quietly with all those metal buckles and armor and shit all over you, anyway?”

“Dunno. How the hell do you run so fast in those spike-heeled hooker boots?”


	2. Chapter 2

Archie rises above the cloud cover and hovers there, engines humming quietly, a tranquil black silhouette against the tarnished silver clouds. It's a serene tableau, unlike the one currently happening in the airship.

Inside Archie, Nite Owl and his partner glare at each other across the back of the co-pilot chair. More accurately, Rorschach is glaring. Nite Owl is watching warily.

Dan pulls off his cowl and then sighs in relief as he finally, blessedly, undoes the more binding parts of his uniform. He slowly gets out of the pilot's chair and approaches Rorschach, who's standing silently on the other side of the co-pilot's chair. Dan can practically see little thunderclouds hanging over his partner's head. If he thinks about it, he can envision vultures circling it too.

"Daniel, really don’t appreciate you... _unhk!_ "

Grinning, Dan shuts his grumbling off with a kiss. Rorschach doesn't push him off but he doesn't exactly respond, either. Placing his hands over Dan's, which are currently cradling the sides of his head, he steps backward. Dan moves with him, still kissing him, until they're backed up against the bulkhead wall and there is no more room to retreat. Rorschach still hasn't shoved him off, so Dan keeps it up until the stiff shoulders relax under his hands and he feels the grim mouth finally soften and open to him.

As usual, Rorschach's kiss is hesitant at first, as if Dan's advance has taken him by surprise and he has to remember what he's doing. Then as Dan's tongue strokes across the roof of his mouth Rorschach finally responds, the tip of his tongue quickly licking up the underside of Dan's tongue.

And it's that shy, experimental flick of tongue against his that undoes Dan each time, that moment when his repressed and irascible partner decides that he does indeed want this. It still awes Dan to think that he, out of all the people on Earth, is the only one that this hard-bitten, untouchable man allows to touch him. And he is, as far as knows, the only one that Rorschach wants to touch in return.

The tongue flick makes Dan redouble his efforts, humming with pleasure as he kisses his partner even more intensely, running his fingertips over the rough unshaven jaw and up under the mask into his hair, trying hard to convey by touch what Rorschach won't allow him to say.

Finally coming up for air, Dan disengages and pulls back enough to look at Rorschach, smiling when he sees his reddened, slightly swollen lips. He moves his thigh a bit just to feel it rub against the hard evidence of his partner's interest and feel it twitch against his leg in response. Rorschach rumbles a low " _hrmm_ " that's basically his equivalent of a purr. Then he cuffs Daniel sharply on the side of his head.

It's hard enough to make his ear sing for a moment, but Dan knows it was basically a love tap; had Rorschach been serious he would have laid Dan out cold.

"Need to be more discreet, Daniel. Sure Miss Jupiter noticed something."

Rorschach takes Dan's shoulders and holds him at arm's length. His mouth is once more set into a hard line and Dan realizes that he's not out of the doghouse yet.

"I’m sorry, I can’t help it. I just love making you blush. You know that you are completely adorable when you blush like that, don’t you?"

***

"Adorable" is right up there along with "beautiful" and "sexy" on Rorschach’s list of top ten words that, when uttered by Daniel, make him want to simultaneously hide, throw Nite Owl out of Archie at a thousand feet up, and push Daniel down to the floor and devour him right there. So far, the last option has won out, but Daniel's pushing it today.

Rorschach hates anything about his body that he can’t control, which seems to be more and more things nowadays. And he really hates the fact that any strong emotion makes him flush the way it does; the curse of being so fair-skinned.

His recently awakened libido, which has been making a treacherous enemy out of his own body lately, is a brand new type of problem. Rorschach has dealt with his own base impulses in the past, of course; it’s something that all men have to deal with, most of them unsuccessfully. Up to this point it’s been a battle that Rorschach has won. Well past the dangerous years of adolescence with its confusing and out of control impulses, he never suspected that he could fall prey to something like this now.

Rorschach has never been this close, physically or otherwise, with another person before Nite Owl; never even come near to it. But there is just something about Daniel’s inexhaustible energetic good nature and the baffling but genuine affection (Rorschach can’t bear yet to call it love) that he obviously has for his partner that reaches past all of Rorschach’s carefully constructed and hard-won barriers and strikes through to his core.

It's unbearably intimate and he has no idea what to do with the uncomfortable and overwhelming emotion it drags out of him. And he fears more and more that Daniel has no real idea of what this does to him or how much it means.

Daniel has stripped his carefully built defenses bare and left him helpless to master his own weakness. And he still can't quite believe how the touch of Daniel's hands, so clever at wielding tools and working on Archie, can make him squirm and moan and cry out like any back-alley deviant, aghast at the intensity of pleasure that his body is capable of surviving.

One of those adept hands drops down to caress him and he closes his eyes, shuddering at the wave of raw sensation that makes him groan and arch into Daniel's touch.

***

Dan runs his hand over the bulge at his partner’s crotch, teasing, grinning at the way it makes Rorschach moan and push himself into Dan’s hand.

"I love making you blush, it gets me so hard. I was ten seconds away from just picking you up and throwing you down on that table and tearing your clothes off with my teeth, you know that?"

"Appreciate your not--- _aah, Daniel!_ \---giving O-Ozymandias any ideas."

"He’d better not get any ideas, I’d hate to have to kill him."

"Appreciate your willingness to defend my honor Daniel, but you’re evading the point. Need to be more circumspect."

This last is said with a little less conviction as Dan undresses him, dropping eager little bites and kisses on each area of skin as it's revealed. When they're both out of their clothes, Dan straightens up and mouths along the sandpaper jawline before going in for another kiss.

Grinning, he reaches down and takes Rorschach in hand, swallowing the little gasp that it pulls out of his partner’s mouth. "Mmm. You looked like you enjoyed watching me, though. Were you thinking about what it would feel like if I were doing it to you instead?"

As he speaks, he slowly slides his hand up, then down his partner’s cock, mirroring what he did earlier to the beer bottle, rubbing his thumb across the slick head as Rorschach gasps and bucks against him, his hips moving sharply in time to Dan’s strokes.

Dan groans in relief as Rorschach finally reaches down to take him in hand as well, winding the fingers of his other hand into Dan's hair. Then the gloved hands tighten simultaneously around his testicles and the fistful of hair at the back of his head.

It's not hard enough to drop Dan to the floor, but it is hard enough to make him hiss and see stars. He breathes out a soft " _Oww_ " and becomes very, very still. His partner's mouth is set in a straight humorless line. "Daniel. Need to discuss this with you. Now."

Dan's voice is strained and a little higher than normal. "You have my undivided attention. Let's talk."

Dan knows better than to try and escape or to pry Rorschach's grip loose right now. Instead, he stops what he was doing and brings his hands up to rest neutrally on his partner's waist. He feels rather proud of himself when his voice doesn't shake at all as he asks, "So. What did you want to talk about?"

Rorschach releases his vise grip on Dan's balls and Dan grunts in relieved appreciation, trying hard to keep focused on the matter at hand. It really doesn't help that what Rorschach just did to him has perversely made him even harder, but Dan's smart enough to realize that if he doesn't start taking this seriously right now he's going to regret it.

Rorschach's voice is low and intense, with a soft burr of unaccustomed emotion in it as he speaks. "Daniel. This…thing. Between us. It should be private." He looks down and to the side. "It's not for others' eyes."

This catches Dan's attention every bit as much as the nut-grab did. He narrows his eyes and looks into the shifting inkblots of his partner's mask, wishing more than he ever has before that he could look directly into Rorschach's face.

Dan’s always been fascinated with the way the ink patterns move over his partner’s mask. The way they flow according to Rorschach’s facial movements, and how they contract or expand when his skin cools off or heats up. But sometimes, like right now, he wishes he could just see what was in the other man's eyes. Instead he has to rely on what he can glean from Rorschach's tone and body language and from the set of the thin-lipped mouth below the rucked-up mask.

"It's not good for other people to be seeing and drawing their own conclusions, Daniel. Even if they are right."

Rorschach relaxes the hand that's clutching a fistful of Dan's hair, and after a moment of hesitation he runs rough fingers through Dan's hair and over his scalp in an awkward caress. It momentarily distracts Dan from the serious conversation they're suddenly having and he purrs inwardly; it's rare that Rorschach offers overt, simple gestures of affection like that. Then he frowns, focusing on what Rorschach just said.

"Hey, give me credit for a few brains. I would never do that to you in public. These people are our teammates, our friends; it's different. We should be able to be ourselves around them. And we wouldn't be the first in the group to get involved like this, you know."

"Not the best example, Daniel. Remember Silhouette?"

"That was different, that was back in the Forties. And that was also Larry Schexnayder's doing. The Crimebusters don't have a publicist, unless you count Ozymandais. And Adrian certainly wouldn't care. Glass houses and all."

"Know that, Daniel, but when people get too comfortable with something they make mistakes. Slip up. Not concerned about Ozymandais, but Miss Jupiter is far too young and thoughtless to remember to be discreet. And certainly don't trust the Comedian not to tell other people if it strikes him as funny. And it will. Telling me you won't care if Hollis Mason finds out?"

That one gives Dan pause. He'd like to think that Mason would be sympathetic. Certainly he'd sounded guilty and a little wistful when telling Dan the story of what happened to Silhouette, and he's hinted to Dan that there will definitely be something about that in the Minutemen book he's writing.

But Mason is also very straight-laced and very old fashioned and Dan really doesn't know what he thinks of men who sleep with other men. Especially if one of the men in question is also using the name of Nite Owl. The idea that his mentor might be disappointed in him if he finds out about Dan's relationship with Rorschach is new and unsettling, and he needs to think about that.

Rorschach is watching him silently and intently. As Dan's expression becomes clouded and some of the high-spirited euphoria slips from his face, Rorschach nods and _hurms_.

"Not so easy, Daniel. You see?"

"Yeah, okay. I get it." Dan nods in grudging acknowledgement, knowing that he looks sulky and upset. And he is, because there's an egocentric and unrealistic part of Dan that wants to ignore the obvious dangers and just be open about what they have.

That selfish part of Dan wants to let his fellow Crimebusters know that he and Rorschach are partners in more than just crime fighting; wants them to understand that he's not just some dateless loser whose most intense relationship is with the intricate machines he builds in his basement. That part of him wants to let them all know that he, and he alone, gets to touch this amazing, intense, unstoppable creature, gets to feel that raw power submit under his hands.

But in the end it's the unhappy frustrated edge to Rorschach's voice that reaches in past Dan's desire to keep going, to try and make his partner see things the same way he does and stops his budding argument in its tracks.

Then he really thinks about it, about how Rorschach trusts only Dan with this much of himself (and what an enormous thing that is, which is still partly beyond Dan's comprehension). And how Rorschach never really _asks_ him for anything, even though Dan's happy to give him whatever he'll accept.

And suddenly Dan feels thoroughly ashamed of himself. Because although he still knows next to nothing about Rorschach's past, Dan is pretty sure that his partner's had way more than his fair share of mistreatment and grief from other people and Dan refuses to be another straw on that pile.

"I'm sorry, I'll rein it in. I know you're right. It's just hard, I wish sometimes that I could just tell them about us, be able to act like two people who are…who have what we have."

Rorschach shakes his head as if despairing of Dan's naiveté. He's probably right to do so, Dan reflects. But he seems satisfied with Dan's answer and nods. Then the gloved hands run up into Dan's hair and grasp a firm double handful of his hair. Dan sighs, enjoying the feeling of the hard leather-encased fingers tightly gripping his hair (and he _loves_ that Rorschach's still wearing the gloves when the rest of him is pressed so wonderfully naked and hard against him). Rorschach very gently thumps Dan's head against the wall and growls, so softly that it's more of a rumbling leonine purr.

Dan grins at him and brings his hand up to cradle the side of his angular jaw. He runs his fingertips along the thin line of his partner's lips and the grim mouth opens to let him slip his index and middle fingers inside. Dan closes his eyes to fully enjoy the sensation of Rorschach's tongue, so soft when the rest of him is so hard, snaking around his fingers and his arousal is so sharp it verges on pain.

It's an awkward walk over to the compartment where Dan keeps the lube because Rorschach is entangled with him every step of the way, licking and nipping and exploring Dan's body with ruthless fingers to find and revisit those spots that make Dan gasp and see stars.

Dan finally retrieves the tube from the drawer and then moans and almost drops it when Rorschach nips at the back of his neck and growls, the vibration of it sinking into his spine and tingling along his shoulders. As his partner's hand moves to curl around his shaft, he bites Dan again on the nape of his neck and holds on this time, growling as he slides his hand up and down and squeezes lightly, making Dan gasp and buck into his hand, whimpering, "Oh God, stop. Please stop. If you keep doing that I'm going to come right now, and I don't want to, not yet. Please, buddy."

Rorschach hums against his neck and takes his hand away. The front of his mask is more black than white now and his lips are parted slightly, teeth catching at his lower lip as he watches Dan uncap the tube and squeeze out a portion into his hand. The sight makes Dan's pulse jump in his throat and groin and a part of him still wonders when he started finding this sight so appealing. He swoops in like his namesake and captures Rorschach's mouth with his own. Reaching down, he runs his fingers along the underside of his partner's rigid cock, flicking teasingly under the head and smiling at the way it makes him jerk and groan Dan's name.

"You ready?"

His answer is a sharp huff of breath and a faintly exasperated, "Loose my engraved invitation, Daniel? _Yes._ Get on with it."

Dan lifts him up and perches him on the edge of the console, mindful of the controls. As always, they'll have to be careful and Dan wishes, yet again, that when he'd optimistically designed Archie with seats for both him and a (theoretical at that point) copilot, that he'd also optimistically designed Archie's console to allow ample room for having sex on it with said copilot.

Bending his partner over the console and taking him from behind would be easier, but it's unfortunately out of the question. For some reason, doggie position spooks the hell out of Rorschach and he never allows it. Period, full stop, no arguments. Dan assumes there's some horrible story behind it that he probably never wants to hear. When they fuck it's always face to face or on their sides.

Which is fine with Dan, it just makes having sex on Archie's control console far more problematic than it would be otherwise. He reflects that if he had Jon's ability to see into the future, maybe he'd have seen ahead and built Archie's main control console a few feet wider. And arranged the controls so that there would be a conveniently situated patch of bare console on which he could park his partner's ass when they fucked.

As it stands, well…hot as it is to either heave Rorschach's wiry body up on the console to be fucked, or to be pushed back onto it and fucked himself, it definitely lends an air of Russian Roulette to the proceedings.

So far the worst thing that's happened was when Rorschach accidentally hit the switch for the sprinkler system with a flailing arm, causing both of them to be doused in water and fire-retardant foam, along with everything else in Archie's interior.

But that still leaves the fact that, although Dan knows it's not terribly likely, one of these days one of them might accidentally hit enough of the wrong buttons at the wrong time to send Archie plummeting straight to the ground. He supposes the only consolation in that case is that the wreck will be so comprehensive that there will at least be no " _Notorious Vigilantes Found Nude in Compromising Positions Inside Owlship Wreckage--We Always Knew They Were That Way_ " tabloid headlines to worry about.

But then, if he wasn't prepared to accept the fact that life was full of potential dangers, he'd have never become a mask.

As he presses into his partner's heat with slicked fingers, Rorschach breathes harshly, his breath coming in sharp huffs. Then Dan curves his fingers and finds that right place to stroke and Rorschach whines and bucks against him. Dan keeps it up for a few minutes until Rorschach is grinding down on his hand and making tiny desperate noises; his lower face flushed bright red. Then Dan guides himself carefully in, crying out at the hot tight slide of it.

And soon Rorschach is stifling his moans with his face pressed into his partner's shoulder, mouthing the skin and biting down as Dan slowly and carefully moves inside of him and starts to thrust. At first his rhythm is slow and tidal, then it becomes faster, more powerful as Rorschach's control of himself starts to slip and he can't suppress his reactions to mere groans and gasps anymore as louder cries of pleasure escape his reluctant throat.

As he rocks against the compact body, Dan can't help but groan loudly each time he thrusts deep into his partner's tight heat because it just feels so fucking _amazing_. "God, you feel so good, you're so perfect. This is the best thing there is, the very best thing."

Dan knows when he hits the right angle. Rorschach gasps and his head tilts back and his mouth opens into an expression of disbelieving ecstasy and fear, as if he still can't decide whether this thing that Daniel does to him is something terrible or the best thing that has ever happened to him.

When Rorschach’s close to coming, he clenches his teeth and pulls his mouth into a grimace like someone's twisting a knife in his gut. Then he buries his face in Dan’s neck and muffles the broken sounds he makes against his partner’s throat, hanging onto Dan like a lifeline as he shudders and clenches around Dan as he rides out his orgasm. Pulled along with him, Dan yells and grips him hard enough to leave bruises as his own climax takes him hard enough to make lights spark behind his closed eyelids.

Afterward, he sags against Rorschach's body and pants for breath, feeling like he's been pleasantly turned inside out, shaking with sporadic aftershocks. Dan folds his arms tightly around his partner's wiry frame, pressing its sharp angles and sinewy limbs against his own body and buries his face in Rorschach's neck. Inhaling clean sweat, spent adrenaline and lingering traces of Ivory soap, he flicks his tongue out to trail over the salty skin, savoring the taste.

What he savors even more, though, are the fleeting moments like this one, when his partner is still soft and taken by echoes of pleasure shuddering through his body, when he allows himself to fit gently against Daniel and be at peace for a brief, precious time.

It always humbles Dan a little bit, how intensely Rorschach responds to his touch. And it makes him feel especially privileged, too, because he’s the only one who ever gets to see Rorschach undone like this; shattered and broken with pleasure, then vulnerable and drowsy afterward.

It can't last, of course, and all too soon Rorschach is gently but firmly pushing him back so he can slide off the console and regain his feet. Dan retrieves a couple of towels from a drawer and tosses one to his partner as he wipes himself down, and all too soon they are putting their uniforms back on again.

As Rorschach moves past Dan to seat himself in the co-pilot's chair Dan reaches out and snags him around the waist, reeling him in with a murmured, "Wait. Come here."

Most of the time this move nets Dan a growl of denial and a terse head shake as his partner moves away to seat himself in the co-pilot's chair and start reconstructing the coral of his emotional barrier reef. This time, however, Rorschach lets Dan pull him into his lap and amazingly, allows Dan to hold him. He stays curled there in silence for the rest of the ride home, head in the crook of Dan's neck, his body relaxed in a lazy curve against Dan's.

Before he moves to start Archie's descent into the tunnel, Dan skates his fingertips lightly along the harsh line of his partner's jaw and traces his thin lips with the pad of his thumb. As he does, he's suddenly blindsided by a burst of sheer affection.

Inclining his head, he presses his lips against the latex fabric covering his partner's temple and realizes that whatever the rules are that he has to follow in order to have this, he doesn't care. Because this, what they have right here, is worth it. And maybe he is ready to put a name now to what this is, which is love. He grins unseen into Rorschach's mask then picks his head up and says quietly, "I'll do my best to tone it down from now on and observe proprieties, I promise."

After a pause during which he looks intently into Dan's face, his partner grumbles, "Suppose you could have worse habits."

As Dan perks up and his expression brightens, Rorschach quickly amends, "Not a request to find out!"

"Aww."

***

Tonight is one of the nights that Rorschach stays, and for the first time Dan wakes up in the morning to find his partner still in bed, stretched out in sleep beside him, one hand curled around Dan's wrist and one ankle hooked over Dan's.


End file.
